Meet the hometown heroes who kicked off Sonoma County’s truffle revolution

It was the mid-1970s when the notion that there could be gourmet gold buried beneath our native North Coast oak trees set off what may have been the first truffle hunt in the area. It was a brief and presumably futile effort to see if an elusive underground delicacy might be another pricey agricultural product to enhance our very new but fast-growing “Wine Country” image.

That burst of excitement came with the notion that delicious (and very expensive) European truffles — easily the most exciting addition to any dinner plate — might be found right here under our North Coast oak trees.

A few adventurous land owners explored the possibility but found that the unmistakable aroma and taste of the truffle found in France, Italy and Spain was lacking. It appeared that we couldn’t hope to compete with the Périgord black or the white Italian varieties that probably cost more than your engagement ring.

But that was then and this is now.

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EARLY NEXT MONTH, truffle farmers — that’s right truffle “farmers,” although some prefer “ranchers” — from the U.S. and Canada will meet in Santa Rosa and pay tribute to the contribution of a couple of hometown heroes who kicked off this Northern California agricultural adventure nearly 50 years ago.

North American Truffle Growers Association delegates from Tennessee, the Carolinas, British Columbia and Ontario, and four Northern California locations — Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and El Dorado counties — will gather at the Flamingo Resort (the official new name for what readers may remember as a “Hotel.”) for the three-day convocation.

They have come to Santa Rosa purposefully. They want to hear the story of that ‘70s mycological adventure, as told by the late Santa Rosa philanthropist Henry Trione in a memoir published in 2014, not long before he died. It was a brief episode, a flirtation, nothing more, with epicurean delights. Or so we thought.

It began as an adventure that Madelyne and Henry Trione shared with Santa Rosa friends Lois and Ralph Stone. They sailed from New York to Europe on the first leg of the SS France’s around-the-world voyage. It was an expensive, way beyond first-class, cruise, including the dining adventure. Among other culinary delights, there were waiters who stood ready at every table to shave bits of glorious black Périgord truffles over anything pointed to on a dinner plate.

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HENRY KNEW TRUFFLES. His immigrant parents, from northern Italy, received annual shipments of truffles, packed in rice, from relatives in “the old country” for the annual family risotto feeds in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

“Truffles flavoring just about everything, ” he writes in his bio. For the Stones, with no such gourmet family connections, it was the flavor that mattered. When the ship docked, the two couples altered their agenda and headed straight to northern Italy to explore the manner in which specially bred dogs were trained to find the underground fungi. “We have oak trees,” they thought, “We can do this.”

They formed a partnership called “Tristo,” an amalgamation of their surnames, and connected with Paul Urbani, the American representative of Urbani Tartufi, an Italian family enterprise with — at the time — about 120 years of producing and distributing truffles. (Today that company based in Umbria’s Valnerina valley, is headed by CEO Olga Urbani, a sixth-generation family member recognized among the world’s leading business women.)

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IN 1975, when Tristo staged the first-ever California Truffle Congress here, it was enthusiastically endorsed by the City of Santa Rosa, which declared a “First Annual Truffle Week” and offered the council chambers for the meeting. It seemed like a grand adventure to most of us, and, frankly, not a whole lot more. But, as happened often, we all underestimated the Trione determination.

There was, of course, a whole lot of good fun involved, told in detail in Henry’s memoir. There is the off-again, on-again purchase of a pair of truffle dogs who arrived from Italy, by private plane, just as the congress convened. The dogs, Rondanella and Urbetta, turned out to prefer chasing the new-to-them wild critters of Annadel over snuffling for truffles. It would be soon become apparent that the dogs knew what the delegates would learn — that the California variety wasn’t “the real thing.”

Nonetheless, this first try at truffling was fodder for not only this newspaper and the San Francisco dailies but the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and, of course, the New York Times. But the notion of a new ag adventure faded quickly. Yes, there were truffles under our oaks, but the taste didn’t come close to the European models.

Henry Trione, however, was not a man who give up easily. He sought help from UC Davis’ food and farm experts who referred him to Dr. James Trappe, a Forestry professor at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Trappe was engaged in mycorrhizal research, studying the association between roots and fungi, which creates the elusive truffle.

Trappe and Trione became friends and Henry’s interest in truffles shifted from a commercial enterprise, which didn’t seem promising at the time, to supporting Trappe’s research, which yielded two important books on the subject, including the Field Guide to North American Truffles.

Still actively engaged in his 90s, Jim Trappe was scheduled to come to Santa Rosa next month to talk about his continuing work, including Australia, where cultivated truffles are flourishing; but, given the continuing concern over COVID-19, he will “visit” on a video.

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TRUFFLE ASSOCIATION board member Karen Passafaro of Santa Rosa and her husband, Jim, farm truffles high in the Sonoma County hills. She says the current price for the local Black Périgord Truffle is about $60 per ounce, roughly $1,000 per pound. Before you gasp, understand that a truffle weighing 1 ounce, “about the size of a golf ball” Karen estimates, can be shaved and used in the preparation of several truffle dishes for a party of four. Most West Coast chefs will happily pay a premium for a California truffle because of its freshness. It hasn’t spent 11 hours in an airplane coming “over the pole.”

There are, at last count, about a dozen orchards — about 15,000 trees with European truffle grafts on their roots in various stages of growth — in Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino and Napa counties. The biggest is in Lake County. The most profitable thus far, is Kendall Jackson’s 3,000-plus trees — both oak and hazelnut — in Sonoma County.

What to call those truffled trees? That seems to be a question. Technically, bowing to European roots they would be known as “truffieres” but most growers, apparently prefer “orchard.” Kendall Jackson’s trees, probably the only ones in Sonoma County with a couple of harvests to brag on, grow in the Jackson Family Wines’ “Truffle Garden.”

Tucker Taylor is director of KJ’s “culinary gardens ” Like so many in this new adventure, he started on another path, with a degree in business administration, and a second one in environmental horticulture. He came to KJ when the “garden” of hazelnut and oak trees planted in 2011 was just three years in the ground. Now, with a couple of successful harvests behind them, the root fruit of KJ trees (probably the hazelnuts, which grow faster, while oaks last longer) have a healthy number of Bay Area restaurant clients serving KJ Sonoma County truffles along with Kendall Jackson Family wines.

The Passafaros’ orchard is small by comparison. It is, like many of the truffle ventures, a second career. Both Karen and Jim are retired executives from Silicon Valley’s medical device industry. They planted their first “truffle trees” in 2014 and imported a truffle dog named Alba. She’s a Lagotto Romagnolo, an ancient breed with many generations of truffle hunters in her heritage. While waiting patiently for the truffle harvest, Alba visits the occasional rest home, where even the clients who wouldn’t eat a truffle on a bet, enjoy her good nature.

Alba is, like all who are waiting for the first sniff of that flavorful tuber, very patient.

Patience is required. The time between planting and harvest is five to 10 years, so you can understand that these ag entrepreneurs are not expecting overnight success. “If you’re looking for a patient person,” says Passafaro, “find a truffle farmer.”